Death penalty: Global executions reach 25-year high according to Amnesty report

Nooses hang at Pul-e-Charkhi prison, on the outskirts of Kabul, AfghanistanGetty

A dramatic rise in the number of executions around the world saw more people put to death in 2015 than at any point in the last 25 years, a report by Amnesty International has found. Researchers said at least 1,634 people were executed last year, a rise of 54% on 2014 and the highest number Amnesty has recorded since 1989.

The figures – compiled in a 70-page report published on Wednesday (6 April) – reveal the top five executioners in the world were China, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the US. Methods of execution ranged from beheading and hanging to lethal injection and death by firing squad.

Researchers said governments in almost all regions of the world continued to use the death penalty to respond to real or perceived threats to state security and public safety. The death penalty was used in at least seven countries for terrorism-related offences, with some governments making legal changes to expand the scope of the death penalty as a response to terrorism.

Last year also saw people killed for a range of "non-lethal" crimes, such as corruption, adultery, apostasy and "insulting the prophet of Islam". In Iran, most of the 977 people executed were put to death for drug offences.

Amnesty's secretary general, Salil Shetty, said: "The rise in executions last year is profoundly disturbing. Not for the last 25 years have so many people been put to death by states around the world.

"Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have all put people to death at unprecedented levels, often after grossly unfair trials. This slaughter must end."

Amnesty accused countries of regularly imposing the death penalty in contravention of international law. This included death sentences imposed on under-18s, for offences that don't meet the threshold of the "most serious crimes" and where there were concerns over a fair trial.

Much of the global rise was said to be fuelled by significant increases in the use of the death penalty Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. The number of executions recorded in Iran and Saudi Arabia increased by 31% and 76% respectively, and executions in Pakistan were the highest Amnesty International has ever recorded in that country.

Note: Many countries do not release official information on their use of capital punishment and several countries are thought to have executed many more than the minimum figures compiled by Amnesty (indicated with a "+" symbol).

Globally, the total number of state-sanctioned executions is likely to be higher than reported, as countries where the death penalty remains a state secret do not provide figures. This includes China, which was not included in the report's tally but where "several thousand" people were suspected of being put to death.

Despite what Amnesty called a "profoundly disturbing" surge in governments resorting to the death penalty, the human rights group said there were also some positive developments during 2015. For the first time ever, a majority of the world's countries – 102 – have now fully abolished the penalty.

Four countries completely abolished the death penalty last year – Fiji, Madagascar, Republic of Congo and Suriname – while Mongolia also passed a new criminal code abolishing the death penalty, which will take effect later this year.

In total, 140 countries across the globe are abolitionist in law or practice. Meanwhile, the US carried out 28 executions last year – the lowest number since 1991 – and also passed the lowest number of death sentences since 1977.

Saudi Arabia – Case studies (source: Amnesty)

Ali al-Nimr, Dawood Husseinal-Marhoon and Abdullah Hasan al-Zaher are all facing execution for offences allegedly committed when they were each under the age of 18.

Ali al-Nimr was arrested in 2012, aged 17, and sentenced to death in 2014 for various offences - including taking part in anti-government protests and attacking security forces - which he says he "confessed" to as a result of torture and other ill-treatment in detention. Dawood Hussein al-Marhoon and Abdullah Hasan al-Zaher, who like Al-Nimr are members of Saudi Arabia's persecuted Shi'a Muslim minority, were arrested in 2012 (aged 17 and 16 respectively) and sentenced to death in 2014 on similar charges. They too say "confessions" were tortured out of them.

On 2 January, Ali al-Nimr's uncle, the Shi'a Muslim cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr, was executed along with 46 other people, after what Amnesty said was a "politically-motivated and grossly unfair trial".

USA - The case of Kenneth Fults

Kenneth Fults, 47, is an African American man on death row in the state of Georgia. He is due to be executed on 12 April, having been sentenced to death for the murder of white woman in 1996.

There have been concerns over the trial he faced and the sentence he received. One of the jurors from his sentencing hearing was later reported saying: "I don't know if he ever killed anybody, but that n****r got just what should have happened. Once he pled guilty, I knew I would vote for the death penalty because that's what the n****r deserved."

Meanwhile, some of the former jurors have also signed affidavits saying that Fults' trial lawyer had made little effort to save his client from the death penalty and was even seen to be repeatedly sleeping during proceedings. In 2006, a clinical psychologist assessed Fults as "a mildly mentally retarded individual" (now known as intellectual disability), with an IQ of 72.